Pagenaud prepares for the 24 2021 Hours of Daytona in testing

simon pagenaud is actively preparing its participation in the 24 Hours of Daytona (Florida, January 30-31, 2021). The Frenchman is conducting tests this Tuesday December 8 and Wednesday December 9 aboard the Cadillac DPi-VR which he will share with a great crew (Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Rockenfeller and Jimmie Johnson) on the Daytona road course.

New year, new car and a super exciting adventure with legends of the sport from NASCAR, Le Mans, DTM, Indycar. It's a Cadillac attack for the # Rolex24! pic.twitter.com/exAWDxlJPu

— Simon Pagenaud (@simonpagenaud) December 8, 2020

This stay will allow you to get your bearings with a DPi different from the Acura used by the winner of the 500 Indianapolis 2019 in Imsa with Penske. “I've already sat down to adjust our seat, so Jimmie is going to adjust his 'insert' inside. Apparently I'm a little wider than him, so the seat will adjust to make it comfortable for him.

We will discuss with the engineer the different features of the car and the steering wheel and how to use them. The engineer has already given us information before the test in order to know the characteristics of the tires, downforce and corners, all the basics for driving the car as well as the test program.

Then comes the fun part, we'll get to drive! But after that there will be more work – we will make comparisons and work to improve. The first thing is comfort in the car. We need to make sure we can drive 24 hours in good conditions. Driver change training comes right after, because we need to be efficient during pit stops.”, details Poitevin.

Simon Pagenaud also hopes that the tests carried out by the Action Express Racing (AXR) team, in association with Hendrick Motorsports, will allow him to know “when to be aggressive with tires”. “Understanding tire wear will also be important. We will also have a night practice, which is a key element for victory in a race that lasts 24 hours. »